


The Queen of Light Goes to Space

by nyycuh (ngch)



Series: Little Princess of Light [2]
Category: Child of Light (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family, Gen, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 06:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3518621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ngch/pseuds/nyycuh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aurora, the Queen of Light, joined a starship captain, a fairy princess knight, an ice queen, a space robot, and a race car driver on an epic mission across the known universe to find the fabled 'Star Dragon'. How could such a strange band of characters possibly fit in a kids' role-playing game? Norah would soon find out first-hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To the Park

“Yes! Finally!” Norah yelled in delight as she threw her school bag on her bed and plopped down in front of her laptop, still wearing her school uniforms and socks.

After enduring weeks of revision, and a week entirely without the Internet throughout her school’s examination week, she was more than ready to make up for lost time. She had blog posts to read, episodes of _Lemurian Legends_ and other television shows to catch up on, and most importantly, friends to catch up on. Sure, she saw Penny every day in school, but there was a difference between talking to her in school, and just cutting loose and argue about all sort of nerdy things without fear of being judged by their peers. Stacy was still doing her graduate studies in another country, and on-line was the only place where they could meet.

Just when Norah opened a web browser on her laptop, her mother knocked on her bedroom door to gain her attention. “Norah, can you please get changed soon? We’re going to the park,” her mother said.

Norah was dismayed. “Now? We’re going to the park now?”

“Yes. We’re all already ready to go.”

“You didn’t tell me we’re going.”

“Actually, we did. We told you last night.”

Norah leaned back on her seat and sighed in angst. All those weeks waiting looking forward to going back on-line, and this happened.

“Norah, I know you’re eager to go on-line again, but this is a family thing,” her mother patiently explained. “It’s been so long since we go out to the park together. Can’t your internet wait for just a few more hours?”

Norah overheard her stepsister Aurora from outside her room, asking her father, “Dad, can I wear my yellow dress? Please? Please?”

“Of course you can! So, what are you this time?” her father asked Aurora.

“The same! I’m Aurora, Queen of Light!”

Aurora sounded so happy to be going to the park. As much as Norah didn’t want to leave, she was less willing to disappoint Aurora by not joining her.

“Okay, I’ll go. Give me a minute to change,” Norah agreed reluctantly.

“Alright, we’ll be waiting.” Her mother closed the door behind her.

Norah changed out of her school uniform and into a white dress, the one she wore whenever she needed something comfortable and casual to wear when going outside. Rejoining her family at the doorway, she picked a well-worn, yet comfortable pair of white sandals to match her dress.

A few hours out of the house. Norah could endure that. Afterwards, nothing was going to stand between her and her well-earned break catching up on _Lemurian Legends_.

* * *

The park was already filled with park-goers by the time Norah and her family arrived there. Making the best of her situation, Norah pushed thoughts about going on-line out of her head and just let herself be immersed in the calming ambience of the park. She focused her mind on the ambient noise of laughter and bicycle bells, the feel of cooling breeze on her skin and the warmth of diffused sunlight through the tree canopy above her.

Norah could get used to it. In fact, as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she was even starting to enjoy it. She didn’t know how badly she wanted to breathe fresh air after spending almost the entire day in her school hall taking examinations. It was like breathing in life again.

Aurora was having the time of her life. She was hopping alongside her father in her favourite yellow dress, singing songs that sounded like a mish-mash of songs from her favourite animated films embellished with her own additional lyrics.

“So, Norah, how did your school exams go?” Norah’s mother asked.

“Okay, I guess. The science papers were killers though, and my friends are still complaining about them,” Norah replied. “In fact, I’ll be surprised if I get a ‘B’ for science.”

Norah’s mother placed a hand on Norah’s bare shoulder. “I know you’ve worked really hard, Norah. You’ve done well.”

Norah felt warm inside. She appreciated her mother’s compliments. “Thanks, mum,” she said softly.

Her mother wasn’t always so encouraging in the past. Not so long ago, her mother would drive Norah up the wall every time she came home from work, telling off Norah for not studying hard enough, and blaming her laziness for her poor grades. Their mother-daughter relationship was badly strained back then, and looking back, Norah couldn’t blame her mother.

Norah’s mother, as a restaurant manager, had to regularly work long hours, and the only time mother and daughter could see each other regularly was early in the morning and late at night. To top it off, Norah’s mother was also engaged in an exhausting court battle to win unpaid alimony from Norah’s dead-beat father. Coming home past midnight on week-nights, and seeing Norah still awake and idling around without completing her homework, was more than enough to make Norah’s mother lose her cool.

For her part, Norah had lost all interest in studying after her parents’ divorce, and her already fragile school grades took a nosedive. On nights when Norah’s mother attended hearings in the family court, Norah spent them alone in their apartment, eating microwaved food and watching television until it was past midnight. It was her way of trying to escape from her feeling of helplessness in both studies and her personal life, and that self-destructive behaviour was what almost ruined her academically.

Back then, the only good nights to Norah were nights when her mother wasn’t around. Around to remind her that she was a failure in everything, and that everything had turned for the worse after her father abandoned her. Norah didn’t want to face reality, and her mother represented everything that was unjust and cruel about real life.

A timely intervention from one of Norah’s teachers in primary school, Mrs Jones, was what saved Norah’s grades and her relationship with her mother. Mrs Jones, refusing to believe that Norah was a lost cause, relentlessly tried to get Norah to see the errors in her self-defeating way of thinking. Eventually, Mrs Jones succeeded in convincing Norah that her mother was still doing her best, however imperfectly, to take care of her. She also encouraged Norah to do her part to mend her ties with her mother.

Norah remembered the night when she carried out Mrs Jones’ advice. It was the night when Norah’s mother finally won the case against her ex-husband. In the cramped kitchen of their apartment, Norah made a heartfelt apology to her mother for all the troubles she had caused, and thanked her for all the sacrifices she had made.

It was the first time Norah ever saw her mother cried. She would never forget the way her mother hugged her and held her until the sleeves of her pyjamas was wet with tears; her mother’s, and her own.

Norah was forever grateful to Mrs Jones for going beyond her duty as a teacher to help Norah mend her relationship with her mother. If only she had done more to stay in contact with Mrs Jones, but alas, she left the school soon after Norah graduated from primary school, and Norah had never saw her again since.

“Mum, Dad, look! It’s Lucy and my friends from school!” Aurora shouted excitedly, pointing at a playground where a large group of children were playing.

“Well what are you waiting for? Join them!” her father encouraged her. Aurora bolted straight for the playground with one hand on her crown to keep it from falling off.

Lucy was on board the playground set, steering a wheel that looked vaguely like a ship’s wheel. When Lucy spotted Aurora running towards her, she snapped sharply to attention.

“Ahoy there! Who are you?” Lucy called out to Aurora.

“I am Aurora, Queen of Light!” Aurora shouted back.

“Wonderful! I’ve been waiting for you, Queen Aurora! Climb aboard!”

Aurora climbed up the rope stairs to the raised platform of the playground play-set. “Lucy, is this a ship?”

“Not just a ship, a spaceship! Welcome aboard the _SS Adventure_! I’m the ship’s captain, Captain Lucy Diamond, greatest space captain of the galaxy, and this is the fastest ship in the whole universe!”

“Where are you going on the spaceship?” Aurora asked.

“We are searching for the Space Dragon! Would you want to join us on our great voyage?”

“Space Dragon? That sounds cool, I’m joining!”

Lucy saluted Aurora. “Then welcome to my crew, Queen Aurora!” Lucy swept her hands over her compatriots standing behind her. “Say hi to Queen Aurora!”

Aurora’s friends and schoolmates introduced themselves to Aurora as their alter egos. Mindy was a fairy travelling with a unicorn friend that could gallop through space; Aminah was a queen with magical ice power; Raj was an all-powerful space robot law enforcer; and Marcus was a champion race car driver, flying alongside Lucy’s spaceship in a race car equipped with rocket engines.

“Now, onward to adventure!” Lucy shouted, spinning the wheels on the play-set. “Next stop! Planet X!”


	2. Diamond Dragon

While the kids were embarking on their great space voyage proper, Norah sat down on a park bench facing the playground to rest her tired feet. Norah’s stepfather sat down beside her on the same bench.

“So, Norah! I heard you’ve been writing some stories. Care to share what you’ve been writing?” he asked eagerly.

“Oh! It’s, well, nothing really. I just write to de-stress, it’s nothing particularly ambitious,” Norah replied, subconsciously running her fingers through her long, untied hair.

Norah was not eager to share with her parents that the stories she had been writing, were actually romantic fan-fiction involving characters of her favourite cartoon series _Lemurian Legends_. None of them were questionable in nature of course, but they were not something she would share openly either. Especially not the story where she made Gen and Oengus a romantic couple and turned it into an alternate retelling of _Beauty and the Beast._ It was embarrassing enough that it was secretly a wish-fulfilment story. It would be even worse if her parents got the hint that it symbolized an even more personal event in her life.

“So, how long before you’re ready to publish? Is it going to become the next _Harry Potter_? Ready to send out advanced copies to newspapers yet?” her father asked jokingly.

Norah laughed. “Oh no, of course not! What I’ve written so far aren’t fit for public consumption. In fact, it’s going to give plenty of reviewers a heart attack!”

Her father laughed along with her. “Well, it’s your call. So, do you want to become a writer one day?”

Norah shrugged. “It’s not exactly my first career choice, but I’m open to anything.”

Norah’s father looked back at her with his kindly, fatherly eyes. “If you want to become a writer, we’ll support your decision. We’re confident that one day you can become a great writer, if you work hard for it.”

“Stop it, dad. That’s so cheesy!” said Norah. Her father had such a penchant for saying cheesy motivational lines that it was endearing.

“But it’s the truth! Isn’t it, honey?”

Norah’s mother nodded. “You decide who you want to be.”

“Then then in that case, then I want to be a reality TV star!” Norah joked. The flash of horror on her mother’s face was priceless. “I’m kidding Mum! Kidding!”

Norah’s mother sighed while her husband roared with laughter. “Don’t even joke like that, Norah.”

Norah turned her attention back to Aurora at the playground. The kids were on the ground, slowly pacing around the area and examining the other playground equipment. “What are they doing over there?” Norah asked her parents.

“Beats me,” her father answered with a shrug.

“They look like they’re looking for something.” Norah had a sudden, worrying realisation. “Oh no, what if Aurora lost her hearing aid again and they’re trying to look for it? I better go check if she’s okay!”

Norah rushed over to Aurora at the playground. The moment the kids spotted her approaching, they started screaming at the top of their little voices and hid behind a wall partition that was stencilled with flowers.

“What’s going on? Aurora, where are you? Can you hear me?” Norah called out. There was no answer.

“Kids, where is Aurora? Can you tell her to come out? I’m serious, this isn’t a game,” Norah said to the kids hiding behind the wall. She had no time for the kids’ playtime if Aurora needed her help in any way.

Aurora cautiously approached her own step-sister as if she was approaching an unknown beast. Wasting no time, Norah fell to her knee and checked on Aurora, making sure first that her hearing aid was still firmly attached.

“Aurora, can you hear me?” Norah asked softly. To Norah’s relief, Aurora nodded. Her hearing aid was still firmly attached to her ear and working fine.

“Aurora, you scared me just now! I thought you and your friends were searching for something you lost,” said Norah.

“We’re looking for the Star Dragon,” said Aurora.

“Star Dragon? Did somebody lose her toy?”

Aurora shook her head. “We’ve landed on Planet X to find the Star Dragon. Lucy said this is where it was last seen over ten thousand years ago. We are searching for it on the planet when you came.”

“Oh, I see. So this is another game.” Norah was amused that she almost panicked because of a misunderstanding. Still, at least she could be sure that her beloved step-sister was safe.

“Norah, my friends think you’re the Star Dragon. Are you the Star Dragon?” Aurora asked without missing a beat.

Norah bit her lips in thought. She had no reservations over playing pretend with Aurora in the privacy of their home, but in a public park? With Aurora’s school friends? And in front of their parents who were also watching over them? What would they think of a teenager playing with their kids?

“Norah, please join us. It’ll be fun!” Aurora, this time breaking out of character, pleaded with doe-like eyes.

“Aurora, are you sure they’re okay that I join them? I mean, I’m fine with playing with you at home, but I’m not sure they’ll even like me-” Norah stopped when she registered the look of disappointment that threatened to take over Aurora’s expression. Norah turned to her parents for help. They simply smiled and nodded encouragingly at her.

“Oh fine, I’ll join you,” Norah agreed cheerfully, having finally decided to throw all caution to the wind for the sake of her sister. It was not like she had anything to lose; except maybe her dignity if anyone from her school caught wind of it, but what was the odd of that happening?

Aurora’s face lit up with excitement. “Great! Then are you the Star Dragon?”

“Hmm.” Norah assumed that Lucy already had the ‘Star Dragon’ as something else in her mind. It would be poor form to assume its identity and ruin her play. In fact, she was sure she could make this even better.

“No, Aurora. In fact, I don’t think I even remember my name. I’ve been asleep for so long, I must have lost most of my memories,” said Norah, clutching her head in confusion. “Who am I? What am I? Can you help me?”

“Hmm.” Aurora pondered with a finger tapping on her chin. “You look like a dragon, and you’re all white and shiny.”

“White and shiny?” Norah pretended to be examining herself. “Why, you’re right! In fact, I think I’m actually made of diamonds! In fact, I think I’m a,” Norah paused for dramatic effect, “Diamond Dragon!”

Aurora looked at Norah in awe. “Whoa, a Diamond Dragon! You’re a dragon made purely out of diamonds! Can you fly?”

Norah turned her head to examine her imaginary wings. “Well, I have wings, and I can flap them, so I guess that means I can fly.”

“Then follow me back to our spaceship! You should meet my friends!” Aurora sprinted back to her friends and announced, “I found a dragon, and she’s friendly!”

“Have you found the Star Dragon?” Lucy asked Aurora.

“No, but I found the Diamond Dragon! And she can fly!”

Norah nervously approached Aurora’s friends and greeted, “Oh, hi. You must be Aurora’s friends.”

“Ah! It’s the monster again!” The kids screamed in unison and hid back behind the panel. Norah sighed, not the least bit surprised that she was immediately treated like a villain by the kids. She wondered if there was something about her appearance that made her the default choice for a villain. Surely she didn’t look scary enough to be mistaken for an evil witch?

“No, Norah is not a bad dragon. She’s a good dragon!” Aurora insisted. “She wants to be our friend!”

“She is? Great! What is your name? And are you a good dragon?” asked one of the girls, whom Norah instantly recognised as Lucy. Norah knew Lucy because Aurora regularly invited her over to their house for playtime, though Lucy had never interacted with Norah before. The other kids were unrecognisable to Norah.

“My real name is Norah. And yes, I’m a good dragon. Wait, are you asking me for my actual real name, or my imaginary real name?”

“Norah the Diamond Dragon, now that’s a nice name!” said Lucy.

“But why are you here on Planet X? Isn’t the Star Dragon supposed to be here?” asked Raj.

“Well, I was really tired after flying, so I slept here for a few thousand years. I must have overslept,” said Norah, thinking that this was quite possibly the lamest back-story for a fictional character that she had ever conjured up.

“You are a lazy dragon!” scolded Mindy. Turning to a unicorn soft toy she had been cuddling, she asked it, “Isn’t she, Kelly?”

“Neigh, she is lazy! She needs more exercise too!” Mindy ventriloquised her toy.

Norah felt a little bit offended by Mindy’s remark. “Hey, I was really tired! Besides, you are the ones who disturbed my beauty sleep,” she protested.

“Then, do you know where the Star Dragon is?” asked Lucy.

“Hmm.” The ball was in Norah’s court now. “I remember something about the Star Dragon. Last I heard, he was in the Omega nebulae.”

“Omega nebulae? That must be a really far and dangerous place! No spaceship ever went there and returned to tell the tale! Why would he be there?”

“I heard stories that there were evil monster in there. Perhaps he went there to vanquish them, but it looked like he hadn’t returned.”

“The Star Dragon was a good guy?” Raj asked in amazement.

“Eh, I guess so?”

“Then we must help him! Ladies and gentlemen, back on the _SS Adventure_! We’re flying off to the Omega nebulae!” Lucy ordered her comrades.

“Join us Norah, and we won’t call you lazy any more!” offered Mindy.

Wow, this girl somehow manages to sound like Mum, Norah thought privately. At least she was still adorable.

Turning to Norah, Lucy said, “I’m sorry dragon, but I think you’re too big to fit in my spaceship, even though it is big. Perhaps you can fly in Marcus’ car?”

“Sorry dragon, but Raj is already sharing my car,” said Marcus.

“Car? You have a car that can fly through space?” asked Norah.

Marcus nodded proudly “Yup, but it’s not any ordinary car! I’m Marcus, greatest space racer in the galaxy, and my car is a rocket car that can fly a million miles an hour and up into space! Too bad it’s only big enough for humans, not a dragon.”

Norah had to hold back her sniggers. “Don’t worry Marucs, I’m a dragon who can also fly and breathe in space. I can fly with you. Besides, I think my wings need some stretching anyway.”

“Everyone, get ready! We’re flying back to space!” Lucy pushed an imaginary lever, and made whooshing noise as she imagined her spaceship blasting off back into space. “Lift-off!”

“Wait for me!” Marcus, holding an imaginary steering wheel, also made noises with his mouth, this time the noise of a revving car engine.

“We’re now in space. Engaging warp drive to Omega sector!” Lucy pulled an imaginary lever, and made more space-themed noises with her mouth. “We’re now in warp space.”

Norah leaned against one of the sturdy, painted steel pillars of the playground, watching the kids now occupied with their own imaginary world. Aurora was with her friends now and she didn’t really need Norah to keep her company. Perhaps Aurora just wanted Norah to feel included and join in the fun. Although Norah would admit that she had some fun role-playing, she didn’t feel like she really fit in their play. It was just as well, as she did not want to intrude into their space by introducing any materials that might upset the kids. She knew all too well how tempting it was to inject her desire for more grown-up elements into kids’ plaything.

“Hi Norah! I’m Aminah!” greeted Aminah. The cheerful little girl, dressed in a sparkly turquoise dress that came with a translucent cape, leaned over the ledge of a bridge on the playground playset to greet Norah.

“Hi Aminah. Wow, nice dress!” praised Norah.

“Thanks, my grandmother made it for me. Are you really Aurora’s sister?”

“Yes, I’m Aurora’s older sister. Actually, I’m her step-sister, but it makes no difference.”

“Cool! I always wanted a sister I can play with. My mother said I’m going to have a little sister very soon, and I’m so excited!”

“Yeah, being a sister can be fun,” said Norah. Of course, she intentionally kept Aminah in the dark about the more frustrating parts of being an older sister, such as being entrusted with taking care of Aurora whenever her parents were out of the house. She didn’t want to deflate Aminah’s enthusiasm at that stage.

“And that’s my mother! Hi Mama!” Aminah waved at someone in the distance. Norah turned and spotted Aminah’s mother, a pregnant woman wearing a _hijab_ , sitting on another park bench across the playground. Aminah’s mother waved back to Aminah. When she made eye-contact with Norah, she smiled and waved at Norah too. Norah shyly waved back.

“So, Aminah? What are you exactly?” Norah asked.

“I’m an ice queen with magical ice power!” Aminah answered proudly.

“You mean like–”

“No, I’m a queen of another kingdom, and my kingdom has space technology to go to space. But I’m also her friend too! We and her sister have tea party every week.”

“That’s so sweet! What do you two talk about?”

“Trade. Our kingdoms have very good trade ties.”

Mindy jumped into the conversation. “I’m Mindy, and I’m a fairy princess knight!” Mindy then thrust her soft toy to Norah. “And this is Kelly my magical horse friend. Say hi to Kelly!”

“Hi Kelly,” Norah greeted.

“Hi pig,” Mindy answered for Kelly. Mindy immediately glared at Kelly, scolding, “Kelly, how rude of you! You know Norah is a dragon, not a pig!”

“But she slept like one!” Kelly protested.

“Don’t act like you never overslept before! You were sleeping through most of our voyage on the spaceship!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Oh fine, you win! I’m sorry Norah. Sheesh, can’t a horse make a joke once in a while?”

“Please forgive Kelly. She’s can be rude sometimes,” Mindy said to Norah with a huge, innocent grin.

Norah nodded slowly, dumbfounded by Mindy’s heated exchanges with her imaginary horse friend. She could only imagine what her solo play session looked like to an observer. “Oh, no offence taken.”

“And I’m Raj, a space robot built to defend justice!” Raj cut in.

“Space robot? Wow, I’ve never heard or seen one before! Were you invented while I was still asleep?” Norah asked enthusiastically.

“Oh yes, I’m only seven years old, and I’m the latest, most powerful space robot ever made. I’m also a member of the Space Robot Crops! I’ve super eyes that can find anything that is evil, and a gigantic laser gun in my right arm that only destroy things that is evil!”

“So, can you tell me if I’m evil?” Norah asked.

“I already know you’re not, but let me double-check.” Raj moved his right finger up to his right ear and made a motion of pressing down on a button. “Bzzzt! Ding! Congratulations, you are a one hundred percent good dragon! So that means you’re not evil.”

“What about me Raj?” Mindy asked.

Raj repeated the same motion while facing Mindy. “You’re only sixty percent good. You just passed.”

“What! Only sixty percent! That’s like a ‘C’! Why only sixty percent?” Mindy protested indignantly.

“Sorry, that’s what my super eye says. It doesn’t lie.”

Mindy angrily crossed her arms. “Humph! I think your super eye is faulty.”

“Everybody, we’ve arrived at the Omega sector!” Aurora announced. Aminah and Mindy dashed back to re-join Lucy and Aurora at the ‘bridge’ while Raj rejoined Marcus.

“My scanner have found several objects flying towards us. What are they?” asked Lucy.

“Let’s ask them,” suggested Aurora.

“Boom! Oh no, they are space lizards and they are not friendly! Defend the ship!” Mindy shouted in alarm.

“Lucy has laser canons, but there are too many of them. We have to fly out there and fight them too!” Aurora announced.

Lucy ran over to the side and shouted at Marcus below, “Marcus! We’re under attack!”

“Aye Captain! We’re going to fight them!” Marcus shouted back with a salute.

“Girls, put on the space suits first so we can breathe in space!” Aminah reminded her friends. Mindy, Aminah and Aurora then climbed down the rope ladders and ran past Norah.

“Oh no, the space lizards now have space fighters! They’re going to attack us!” Raj shouted, pointing at an empty space in front of him.

“Norah, help us defend the ship!” Aurora said to Norah.

“Of course!” Norah said bravely. She needed to be brave. Joining the kids in their imaginary battle in full view of adults was going to take Norah even further away from her comfort zone.

Taking the lead, Aurora drew out her imaginary sword and shouted, “Charge!” The playground soon broke out into chaos as the kids started charging left and right at imaginary enemies, crying out their battle cries and making sound effects to accompany their attacks.

“I’m making an ice shield. Get behind me!” Aminah shouted.

“I’m making a magical bubble shield!” Mindy shouted from a short distance away.

“Pew pew pew!” Marcus ran around the playground in a big circles in an imaginary dogfight.

“Oh gosh, this is going to so embarrassing,” Norah groaned under her breath, before joining in the imaginary battle by following Aurora around and pretending to vanquish the space ghosts by making laser sound effects. At least she could keep a close eye on Aurora.

“There are more over there! Let’s go Norah!” Aurora shouted, running under the bridge. Norah had to duck as she followed Aurora under the low bridge. She didn’t notice there was somebody at the other side, until she bumped into him.

“Ouch! I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?” Norah apologised as she got back to her feet.

“It’s okay. I’m not hurt at all,” replied the person she accidentally bumped into.

Norah was surprised when recognised the voice. “David? Is that you?”

David, her friend and classmate, was also stunned when he saw Norah. “Oh, hey Norah! What a surprise seeing into you here!”

“Oh, hey David! Well, this is an awkward way to meet,” Norah said, followed by a stiff laughter.

“Yeah, it sure is.” David then spotted Aurora nearby, running in circles and swinging her imaginary sword. “Is she your sister?”

“Yup, that’s my sister Aurora. I’m watching over her while she plays.”

“Wow, she seems really energetic. No wonder you’re running around the playground with her.”

Norah gulped. “You saw me?”

David nodded. “Yup.”

Norah felt like running away and finding a hole to hide in. “Oh god, this is so embarrassing!” she groaned.

David shrugged with a smile. “Why? I think it’s really nice of you to take such good care of your sister that you’ll play with her.”

“You really think so?” Norah asked in disbelief. She had expected David to be rolling on the floor laughing by then, which was exactly what happened when she accidentally squirted paint on her uniform during last week’s Arts and Craft class.

David nodded. “I wish I can be this close to my brother.”

Norah couldn’t help giggling. David could sound so earnest saying the corniest things that it became convincing. “Aw shucks, you’re pandering to me,” she said.

“So, how was the examination?” he asked.

“I think it is okay, all things considered,” said Norah. She realised that she had been nervously fiddling with her hair again and stopped herself.

“Yeah, I guess it is okay for me too. I found maths a bit hard though.”

“Yeah.”

Their chat briefly ended on an awkward silence. Judging from how David had placed his hands in his pants pocket and was staring down at his sneakers, Norah could tell that he was nervous too.

“Is my brother Marcus causing any trouble?” David asked out of the blue.

“Marcus? Is he one of the kids?” asked Norah.

“Yes. He’s the one who is pretending to be, I don’t know, a car I think?”

Norah turned to find Marcus. She found him running around with Raj behind him, making shooting noises at imaginary monsters.

“Oh, that boy? No, he hasn’t been causing any trouble. Well, he called me a monster, but I’m already used to playing as one,” said Norah, laughing.

“That’s good. Actually, I’m here with my parents, and I’m here to watch over him too. He, well, he nearly got into a fight with the same kids last week in this same exact place, and he was under my watch too.” David brushed his hair as he said, looking a bit ashamed.

Norah was taken aback. That was the first time she had heard of the incident. “Did he? Was Aurora there?”

“I think she was, but the fight didn’t involve her. It was between him and another kid. The thing is, I wasn’t watching him hard enough. Luckily nobody actually got hurt before they were separated. There were a lot of crying involved though. It was awful.”

“Oh. I didn’t know, I was at home studying when that happened.”

“I see.” David pushed his hands further into his jeans pockets till the imprints of his knuckles were visible through the fabric. “Well, I just thought I should tell you myself, in case you haven’t already heard of it. It’s kind of my fault.”

“Well, kids are kids. They’ll get into fights over all sort of petty little things.”

“Yeah, but it’s a good thing kids also don’t hold a grudge for long. I’m just glad nobody got hurt.” David shrugged. “Well, what I actually meant to say is, well, sorry.”

“I don’t blame you. Stop kicking yourself up over your brother’s mistakes.”

David smiled slightly. “Thanks Norah. I’m glad you understand.”

Norah heard the kids from the other side of the playground chattering together in a group again. “I better re-join them before they think I chickened out of the game,” she said.

David took his right hand out of his pants pocket and waved with a wide, dimpled smile on his face. “Okay, have fun!”

“You too!” Norah turned away as soon as she felt her face turning warm.

Norah had been secretly harbouring a massive crush on David for a while. David, the current head of the school’s science club, was not a particularly handsome boy, and compared with the smothering hunks who seemed to populate all of her school’s sports teams, he wasn’t even within throwing distance of their league. Yet, there was something about that easy-going smile, and hair which always defied all attempts at combing, that made him looked attractive and approachable at the same time. She also admired David for being smart, and yet kind enough to help her out with school work. It was a very pleasant surprise for her to learn that he cared so much for his younger sibling too.

David had everything that Norah looked for in a dream boyfriend. Well, except the boyfriend in her dream used to be a lot more muscular, but heck, she would take him without hesitation if he ever asked her to be his girlfriend. He was certainly way better than her arrogant, shallow, self-admiring ex-boyfriend from the school choir, who dumped her the moment another girl he had been eyeing broke up with her boyfriend.

If only Norah could find the courage to confess her feelings. She was fine with talking to him as a friend, but the moment her emotions intrude, her introvert side would reveal itself again and she would button up. Annoyingly, it was plainly obvious that David wasn’t the type of boy who would readily confess his feelings to her either, even though all the tell-tale signs that he had a crush on her were showing whenever he talked to her.

Perhaps she should make the first move. Eventually. Right now, she had to get back into the game.


	3. The Star Dragon Returned

“Norah, what happened back there?” Lucy asked when Norah returned.

“Did you fall asleep again?” Mindy asked, her eyes rolling.

Without skipping a beat, Norah conjured up a story that would neatly explained away her tardiness in the ‘battle’. “I was fighting the space lizards, when a bright light shined on me and I heard a voice in my head. It told me we should head to the floating temple of Garon,” she said.

“A floating temple?” Raj asked, wide-eyed.

Norah nodded. “It was an ancient temple floating in space. It once belonged to a powerful empire that disappeared eons ago. There were powerful magic in there, but evil had taken over it again. I believed the Star Dragon was trying to stop it when he disappeared.”

“Oh no! Is he dead?” Aurora asked.

“I honestly don’t know. The voice disappeared before I could ask any questions, and before I knew it, the battle is already over.”

“Then we’re going there to find the answers ourselves and defeat evil! Let’s head to Garon!” Lucy announced.

After another warp speed travel that lasted about a minute, the crew of SS Adventure arrived at the floating temple of Garon.

“Whoa, Norah is right. It is a floating temple!” Mindy exclaimed.

“But I don’t see anyone here. Where is the evil being?” Lucy asked.

Raj suddenly pointed at something up in the tree in terror. “Look up there! It’s a crow monster from another dimension. Holy moly, it’s even bigger than our ship!”

Norah looked up. Sure enough, there was a crow perched on the branch. It tilted its head at them, and then flew off.

“It landed in front of us. It’s going to attack us!” Raj continued, now pointing at an empty space ahead of them.

“Battle stations, all hands on deck!” Lucy shouted.

Raj pressed an imaginary button on his imaginary robotic head. “It’s charging up its power! I can feel it in my sensors! Its power level is now over one million points!”

“It’s firing an energy beam at us! Hold on!” Lucy started making whooshing noise to simulate the energy beam that was blasting the ship. “Oh no, my ship’s systems are failing!”

“Attack!” Raj shouted. Together, the kids ran ahead and attempted to fight the crow monster.

“Wow, not even my days in nursery was that exciting.” Norah mused to herself as she watched the kids frail around. One by one, they fell to the ground, defeated.

“Oh no, it’s too powerful!” Mindy cried out.

“Norah, help us!” Aminah added.

“Norah, use your best attack!” Aurora urged her sister.

“Right! I’ll shoot an energy beam at the monster!” Norah faced the invisible demon and raised both of her arms. “Blast off!”

“Wow, that attack was amazing!” Aurora said in awe.

“But it still didn’t work!” said Lucy. “It attacked her! And now Norah is defeated too.”

Relieved, Norah promptly sat down on the ground, glad that she had another chance to rest her tired feet. “Oh no, I’m injured, and now I can’t get up.”

Aurora ran over to Norah and tried to lift her up from behind, pleading, “Norah, you’ve to get up! The space crow is winning!”

“Not yet Aurora, I’m tired for real and I need to rest my feet for a while,” said Norah. The moment she sat down was the moment all the strength in her aching legs seemed to have been sapped by the ground.

“Are you tired already?”

“Yes, for real.”

“Oh.”

In the background, the kids had just ‘revived’ themselves and had another go at the monster. “Try tying it down with a rope! Or trip it!” Norah could heard Mindy yelling, clearly in charge of their renewed offensive.

“Okay, I’ll wait.” Aurora sat down next to Norah. For five seconds she waited, before she asked, “Are you fine now?”

“No, still tired,” groaned Norah. “I just finished a really tough test in school and I’m really tired now.”

“Test? How hard was your test?”

“Oh, you’ve no idea. I had to take those papers every day for the past five days and all of them were difficult.”

“Really? I had my test last week too, and it wasn’t hard.”

Norah grinned. “Yeah, I remember my tests back in my primary school. They were nothing compared to what we have in secondary school.”

Aurora cocked her head sideways in confusion. “Secondary school? What’s that?”

“It’s the school I go to after primary school. You’ll be going there too when you’re older.”

Aurora’s eyes widened. “Whoa, you mean there’s another school I’ll have to go to when I’m older?”

Norah couldn’t resist chuckling. “Yes, of course you have to.”

“Is it fun? Do you get to do fun stuff in school too?”

Norah thought back over her past three whirlwind years in secondary school. There were memories of friendships forged, and broken; her continuous struggle to maintain her school grades; her first crush and rejection; the laughably insipid dates with her self-absorbed ex-boyfriend; the happy evenings spent after rehearsals with her drama club friends; and her first stage performance in front of a public audience in a Shakespeare play. There were no shortage of miserable moments, but she also had plenty of funny and happy memories too. With only less then twelve months to go before the ‘O’ levels and graduation, Norah was confident she had enough experience to make a judgement.

“Yes, it can be fun. Where do you think I learnt to laugh like an evil witch?” she eventually replied with a grin.

“Wow, I can’t wait to grow up and be just like you!” Aurora said in awe.

“Oh, but you won’t want to grow up too fast either. Trust me.” Norah only knew how true that statement was.

“Norah, we need your help!” Lucy interrupted them from above.

“Oh no! The crow is still not defeated yet! Come, I know exactly what I should do to help you become stronger!” Without warning, Aurora slapped Norah’s exposed shoulder with the palms of her hands.

“Ouch!” Norah cried out.

“Norah, I’ve given you some of my light power! You can stand up now! Quick!” Aurora urged her sister, trying to push Norah up.

“Okay, okay, I’m standing up.” Norah relented and got back to her feet. The moment she stood up, Aurora gasped.

“Norah, you’re glowing! In fact, you’re turning golden in colour!” Aurora waved at her friends, shouting, “Everyone, I gave Norah my light power and she is glowing! I think she’s changing!”

Mindy stopped fighting her imaginary foes. “Changing? Into what?”

“She’s changing into another dragon! I see a star mark on her.”

“A star mark! I see it too!” Lucy shouted, now jumping in joy. “Aurora, the Diamond Dragon has just transformed into the Star Dragon! She’s the Star Dragon all along!”

“Wow!” Marcus and Raj looked up to Norah in awe.

“I am?” Norah honestly didn’t expect the plot twist.

“Yes you are! You’ve turned golden!” Marcus exclaimed.

Norah pretended to look at her hands in awe. “Oh my, this is totally unexpected.”

“Kill the crow! Use your star power to kill the crow!” Raj urged Norah.

“Okay Norah, this is just like back on stage during that Shakespeare play”, Norah muttered to herself. “Don’t worry too much about the people looking at you, just focus on giving a good show. In fact, don’t even think about the weird stares you are already getting from people wondering what a teenage girl was doing at the playground. You are doing it all for Aurora.”

“Time to end this!” Norah formed a circle with her hands and aim at the empty space where the imaginary foe stood. “Star power blast!”

With plenty of exaggerated sound effects and matching hand movements, Norah the Star Dragon had successfully vanquished the monstrous villain under a hail of brilliant light.

There was a second of silence. Then, Aurora shouted in joy, “We did it!”

“We did it!” The other kids threw their arms up in the air and repeated after Aurora. It was an extraordinary sight to Norah, watching them cheering and giving each high-fives for winning an imaginary battle. It was all obviously make-believe and even deeply silly, but the kids weren’t ashamed of it. All they cared about was having innocent fun by role-playing, and they had the freedom to pretend to be anything they wanted, only limited by their imagination.

“Aminah, it’s time to go home!” Norah heard Aminah’s mother calling out from the bench.

“Marcus, finish up fast! We’re already late for dinner!” David also called out, running towards Norah and the kids. “We’ve to visit our grandparents for dinner, remember?”

“But bro, we’re like a million light years away from Earth! We can’t just go back now!” Marcus protested.

David smacked his forehead and groaned. “Oh come on, you can’t keep playing forever!”

“I can’t hear you David, I’m too far away to hear you, in another galaxy!”

“Yeah! We’re not done yet!” the kids agreed in unison.

Norah turned to David and assured him, “Don’t worry David, I know how to handle this. Just give me a minute.”

“You can?” David asked, surprised. “No offence Norah, but,” David lowered his voice to a whisper, “you are dealing with some of the rowdiest kids I’ve ever encountered in life. And that’s saying a lot because Marcus is already my brother!”

Norah winked at David. “Watch me.”

Norah confidently faced the kids, and with a deep, husky voice befitting of a regal dragon, said, “My fellow warriors, thank you for waking me from my overdue slumber and helping me to defeat the evil crow monster. Thanks to Aurora’s power, I finally remember who I am and what happened before my deep slumber.”

“What happaned?” asked Lucy.

“Ten thousand years ago, I was battling the same crow to protect the universe,” Norah continued. “After a long and exhausting battle, I managed to banish the crow into another dimension, but it had already stolen much of my power before its defeat. I was weakened, so I landed on Planet X when I could no longer fly and fell into a deep slumber. That was why I became the Diamond Dragon and forgot my real name.”

The kids seemed enthralled with Norah’s story. “Star Dragon, we came searching for you thinking you were a monster, but we were wrong. Would you like to come back to Earth with us and receive our medal for bravery?” Lucy offered, in a very diplomatic manner befitting of an ambassador.

“Certainly. I wish to see Earth, I heard it’s a beautiful planet.”

“But we’re a million light years away from home! How will we go back?” Marcus asked.

“Don’t worry, for as the Star Dragon, I have power over the cosmos. I will immediately open a wormhole back to Earth, and we can all go home in an blink of an eye!” Norah turned, and with her right finger drew an large circle in the air. “Here it is, Earth! Hop through! Even your spaceships can fly through.”

One by one, the kids eagerly jumped through the invisible hoop that Norah had drawn. Norah was the last to walk through the hoop. “Well here we are, Earth!”

“We’re home! And just in time for dinner too!” Lucy cheered. “Hooray! Thank you Star Dragon!”

“You’re welcome. Now hurry along, it’s time to find your parents,” said Norah.

Finally satisfied, the merry adventurers disbanded and returned back to their waiting parents and siblings.

“Thanks a lot Norah! You’ve saved my backside this time,” David thanked Norah, before hurrying with David back to their family car where their parents were already waiting impatiently.

“Mum, mum, you won’t believe the adventure we just had in outer space!” Norah heard Aminah saying excitedly to her mother as they left the playground.

“Aurora, time to go,” Norah called out to Aurora. Aurora said her goodbye to Lucy before running over to rejoin their parents at the bench.

Norah felt a grubby finger poking her, and looking down she realised it was Mindy, who still hadn’t left the playground yet.

“You are a good dragon Norah, but I still think you slept too much,” Mindy said. “Mum says you’ll get sick if you sleep too much”

Smiling, Norah bent down and said, “Fine, I admit it. I slept too much. I promise I won’t oversleep again.”

“You promise! Otherwise you’ll be so fat that you can’t fly any more and you can’t fight evil in space again.” Mindy held up a pinky to Norah. “Pinky promise?”

Norah hooked Mindy’s pinky with her own. “Promise!”

“Mindy, there you are! I’ve been looking for you!” Norah heard a woman calling out.

“Mummy!” Mindy broke off from Norah and ran over to her mother to hug her at the hip.

Norah froze. She recognized that voice, and it had been almost four years since she last it. “Mrs Jones?” she stammered. She looked up, and sure enough, Mindy’s mother was indeed Mrs Jones.

“Norah?” Mrs Jones was surprised too. Her surprise was quickly replaced by pure delight. “Norah! Oh this is wonderful! Oh my gosh, look at you! You’ve grown so much since the last time I saw you! It’s being, what, four years?”

Norah slowly stood up to face her former teacher. She was overwhelmed with so many emotions that she didn’t know how to react, except to say, “Yes. It’s been a while.”

“How are you doing? How’s your mother? How’s school?” Mrs Jones eagerly asked.

“I’m fine. My mother is doing fine too. In fact, I’m even doing okay in school now.” Norah felt a lump in her throat. She had so many things she wanted to say to Mrs Jones all those years, but at that moment, looking up at her former teacher’s motherly face, Norah could not decide what she wanted to say.

“Mummy, do you know Norah?” Mindy asked.

“Yes honey. Norah was one of my students,” Mrs Jones answered.

“Wow! Are you really that old?” Mindy exclaimed.

Mrs Jones laughed. “Yes, I guess I am now.”

“Is Norah a good student?”

Mrs Jones looked back kindly to Norah as she said, “Yes Mindy, Norah is a good student. In fact, she is the brightest and most hard-working student I ever had. I’m so glad to see her again.”

At that moment, Norah simply broke down into tears. The last vestige of sorrow and self-doubt leftover from her troubled childhood that remained inside her finally vanished. It meant the world to her, to hear those words of encouragement from Mrs Jones again.

“There, there.” Mrs Jones offered Norah a tissue paper. Norah gladly took it and blew her nose with it.

“Oh god, this is so embarrassing. I guess I haven’t changed much,” Norah joked once she regained her enough of her composure to speak.

“You have, trust me.”

“Norah! What’s going on over there?” Norah heard her mother calling out, stricken with worry.

“Mum, it’s Mrs Jones! She’s back!” Norah cried out happily. The moment she said Mrs Jones’ name out loud, Norah’s parents scrambled over with Aurora in the tow.

“Mrs Jones, what a pleasant surprise to see you again!” Norah’s mother wasted no time in shaking Mrs Jones’ hands. “Please, visit us for tea some day!”

“Oh sure I will, Amanda! I’ve only just recently moved back here and it’s nice to meet some familiar faces again.” Mrs Jones then showed off Mindy to Norah’s family. “This is my daughter Mindy.”

“Hello! It’s nice to meet you,” Mindy greeted them brightly, a model of good upbringing by her mother.

Norah’s mother chuckled. “Oh, what a sweet girl you have. By the way, I want to introduce you my new husband Thomas, and my step-daughter Aurora. Say hi, Aurora.”

“Hi.” Aurora greeted shyly.

Mrs Jones bent down to talk to Aurora at eye-level. “Hi Aurora. Have you been a good girl?”

Aurora looked down shyly at her feet. “I think so?”

“You only think so?”

Aurora giggled. “Yes.”

Mrs Jones turned her attention back to Norah’s parents, saying, “By the way, I’ve met Aurora in school. She’s such a wonderful friend to Mindy in school.”

Mrs Jones then glanced at her watch. “Oops, I’m so sorry, but I really need to go now. But please, call me any time if you want to visit!”

After exchanging phone numbers, the adults were ready to part ways with their kids, but Norah suddenly said, “Wait, Mrs Jones, I’ve something to say.”

Mrs Jones waited patiently as Norah quietly walked up to her. Norah had finally decided what she want to say, and she wanted to say it before they leave.

“Mrs Jones, I didn’t get a chance to thank you properly before I left the school. I was a terrible student when I was in your class, and I’m worried I haven’t shown enough gratitude to you to make up for it.” Norah took a deep breath. “I just want to say, thank you, for everything you’ve done for me. It’s a little bit late, but I just want you to know how grateful I am.”

With a beautiful smile that hadn’t aged a year, Mrs Jones gave Norah a reassuring pat on the head. “You didn’t have to worry, Norah. Seeing you changing for the better is all the gratitude I ever want from you.”

Norah smiled at her old teacher. She kept smiling as Mrs Jones finally turned and left, with Mindy beginning to recount her grand adventure at the playground.

“So, shall we go?” Norah’s father broke the silence with the suggestion. “We can eat dinner on the way back.”

Holding hands with Aurora, Norah followed her parents back down the park trail beneath the setting sun.


	4. Bonus Chapter - Mother's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter in celebration of Mother's Day.

“Norah, have you finished writing your Mother’s Day card yet?” Aurora asked impatiently on Norah’s bed.

“I’m almost done Aurora. Just give me another minute,” Norah said, her eyes focused on the letter that she was writing on an art paper she had bought just for this occasion. She wanted her mother’s day card to be the best card she had ever made, and the last thing she wanted to ruin it was a careless mistake. The stack of scrap papers at a corner of her desk containing rejected drafts of her the letter were testament to her dedication.

“Hurry up or I won’t have time to decorate it for you!” Aurora reminded her elder step-sister.

“Alright, Aurora. I’m almost done,” Norah said, trying not to giggle. Aurora had earnestly volunteered to decorate Norah’s mother’s day letter in addition to her own, and Norah found her offer too adorable to turn down; even if Aurora’s decorating skills consisted of paper cut-outs with blunt safety scissors and liberal servings of glitter glue.

Norah finished the letter and held it up in the air with pride. No spelling mistake, no grammatical error, and not even a single character written out of shape. She never would have believed that her penmanship could be this good, and she surprised even herself how good it turned out.

“Quick! Let me decorate!” Aurora jumped back down on her feet and tried reaching out for the letter.

Smiling, Norah dropped the letter in her hand. “Alright. Now go crazy!”

Aurora ran back to her bedroom with the letter, which had by then almost resembled a mini-workshop stocked with all the arts materials and tools she needed to prepare for their mother’s day surprise.

Planting her sister’s handwritten letter on the desk, Aurora got down to work with studiousness and efficiencies that would have impressed their parents. Norah watched in amusement as Aurora pasted ready-made cut-outs of animals at corners of the paper, traced butterflies with colour markers, and as a finishing touch sprinkled glitter glue all over the letter.

“Wow, this is beautiful Aurora!” Norah gasped once Aurora showed off the final product. She was not judging the piece by any objective metric of beauty as known to artists. So long as it was created by her beloved sister, it was beautiful.

“You’re lucky I didn’t have to take too long, Norah, otherwise we would be late,” Aurora chided.

Norah smacked her forehead in realisation. “Oh no, mum is coming back soon!”

For mother’s day, Norah’s mother, and by extension Aurora’s stepmother, had taken the day off to enjoy herself outside. Norah’s stepfather, who was a good cook in his own right, stayed at home to prepare a celebratory dinner for the whole family. Unbeknownst to her, father and daughters had also hatched a simple but secret plan to surprise her, and the cards were central to the entire surprise.

“Quick! Let’s prepare the surprise!” Aurora ran out of her room and to the living room, where a basket had been prepared on the coffee table. Aurora carefully placed Norah’s card with her own inside the basket, alongside flowers and a box of milk chocolate

“All set, darlings?” Their father opened the kitchen door to ask. The aroma of mushroom soup and spaghetti from the kitchen filled the apartment.

“All done!” Norah said with a thumbs-up. Against all odds, they have managed to arrange the last minute surprise before their mother returned. Now, all they had to do was wait.

“Do you think mummy will like the surprise?” Aurora asked.

“Of course she will!” Norah said confidently. “I know a thing or two about how to make mum happy.”

Norah was the one who had been planning the entire surprise. This mother’s day was going to be the most significant to her, as it was their first mother’s day since her mother remarried and introduced Aurora and Norah’s stepfather into her life. Norah wanted to do everything in her power to express her love for her mother, and she knew that the best way to do so was by bringing the new family together.

“Oh, one more thing,” Aurora suddenly announced. She ran back into her bedroom to retrieve another card.

“Wait, isn’t your card already here?” Norah asked.

Aurora shook her head. “No, it’s for my angel mummy,” she said cheerfully.

“Oh.” Norah started awkwardly running her fingers through her long hair again. ‘Angel mummy’ was the name Aurora used for her late birth mother.

Aurora walked over to table where a framed photograph of Aurora’s birth mother stood. She placed the card next to the photo, carefully adjusting it so that it would face the photo.

Norah quietly walked over to where Aurora stood, and kneeled down next to her to see the photograph. Aurora’s birth mother was a beautiful woman who bore striking resemblance to Aurora. There she was in the photograph, sitting under a tree in a white dress with a sun hat covering her head and Aurora lying on her laps grinning at the camera.

Her smile was so gentle and so motherly, that Norah had a hard time believing that this was the last photograph ever taken of her alive. By the time the photograph was taken, Aurora’s mother was suffering from terminal stage cancer and wouldn’t live for another two week. The sun hat was hiding the fact that she was already bald due to her cancer treatment.

Norah had never met Aurora’s mother in person. She had already passed away by the time she met Aurora and her step-father for the first time. Norah’s own mother, however, was an old friend of Aurora’s mother, and she had described her as the gentlest and yet the strongest woman she had ever met. Norah had no trouble believing her, for Aurora carried her late mother’s spirit and tenacity in every way possible.

“Happy mother’s day, mummy,” Aurora spoke softly to her birth mother in the photograph, and she kissed the photo. Norah looked away to wipe away the tears that spontaneously formed in her eyes after witnessing Aurora’s heart-breaking gesture of love.

“Daddy daddy daddy! Is the dinner ready yet?” Aurora picked herself up and ran shouting into the kitchen, as if the gesture she had just carried out for her birth mother was just a matter of routine.

“Almost done! Mmm, do you smell it?” her father said.

“It smells nice! I love it!” Aurora jumped in joy.

Norah looked around, and she faced the photo frame alone. She took a deep breath.

“Happy mother’s day to you too,” she whispered to the photo. “Thank you for bringing Aurora to this world. I promise, I’ll take good care of her. Rest in peace.”

“Norah, quick! Mum’s coming back!” Aurora shouted excitedly as she came barrelling out from the kitchen.

“Oh! Coming!” Norah scrambled back to her feet and ran over to the hiding spot that she and Aurora had prepared before-hand, behind the biggest sofa in the living room.

“Dad, turn off the light!” Norah called out to her father. Her father complied and turned off all the lights in the living room, plunging it into darkness.

“Ready?” Norah asked Aurora.

Aurora giggled. “Ready!”

Seconds later, the lock on the apartment’s front door starting clicking. The door knob turned, and the door swung open to reveal their mother, wearing her best clothes and hauling two bags shopping full of brand new clothes.

“Hey, who turned out the lights?” Their mother flicked on the lights.

“SURPRISE!” Norah and Aurora jumped out of their hiding spot and threw confetti over their mother.

Norah’s mother gasped and cupped her mouth, her eyes full of surprise and joy. “Oh my god! What a wonderful surprise!”

“Mummy, this is for you!” Aurora carried the basket containing their cards and a box of chocolate over to her. Her step-mother lifted up Aurora and kissed her profusely all over her chubby face, eliciting yelps of delight from Aurora.

“Happy mother’s day mum!” It was Norah’s turn, and she hugged her mother tightly. Her mother patted her head and gave her a noisy kiss on the forehead.

“Oh, this is the best surprise I ever had in my life! I love you two so much! And I love you too darling.” She kissed her husband, who had brought out a hand-baked chocolate cake with her name on it to welcome her.

“Alright, dinner in ten minutes. Get ready to be stuffed till you can’t walk!” Norah’s stepfather joked as he returned back to the kitchen.

Settling down on the living room couch, Norah’s mother opened Aurora’s card first. Aurora bounced onto the sofa and came to a rest with her head lying on her stepmother’s lap.

“Do you like it? I drew you holding hands with angel mummy because you two are best friends,” Aurora said, pointing at a drawing of her stepmother holding hands with her birth mother as an angel.

“It’s beautiful! I love it!” Norah’s mother gave Aurora another sloppy kiss.

“Now let see Norah’s card!” Norah’s mother eagerly took out Norah’s card and started reading the page-long poem that Norah had painstakingly composed. Norah sat down next to her mother with her hands clasped anxiously, waiting for her to finish reading.

“Do you like it?” Norah asked after a minute, her tone betraying her nervousness.

Norah’s mother wiped her eyes, and she reached out to hug Norah. “It’s beautiful Norah. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, mum.” Norah closed her eyes and returned the embrace. The days of preparation and countless hours spent composing the poem was all worth it.

“Dinner time!” Norah’s stepfather announced from the dining table, his freshly cooked cuisines laid out neatly on the table.

The family sat down together at the dining table and had an enjoyable dinner that stretched into the night. The day had been more than just a simple public holiday to them. It was also the day when the newly-formed family come together and celebrated over simply being a happy family.

As for the two sisters, it was indeed the best Mother’s Day they ever had. Yet for Aurora, it was still not enough without one last thing.

“Mummy, Norah, let’s watch _Brave_ together!” Aurora begged her mother and sister once they were finally done with their desserts.

“Aurora, you’ve just watched that movie last week,” Norah said with a shake of her head. Aurora’s favourite choice of movie seemed to rotate every few weeks or so, but when she chose one, she would binge watch them with an intensity that would even make Norah’s childhood obsession with the _Lemurian Legends_ cartoon seemed pedestrian. She could only hope that Aurora would soon out-grow that habit of hers; she didn’t want her sole lasting impact on her younger sister to be influencing her into becoming yet another overly-obsessive fan girl.

“I know, but this is the right movie to watch tonight! Come on, please?” Aurora pleaded with doleful eyes.

Norah’s mother sighed with a weary smile. “Alright, but you’re still going to bed on time. You too Norah.”

Norah chuckled. “Of course we will. When have we ever slept late?”


End file.
